When he was six, Rod Khleif and his family migrated from Holland and settled in Denver. They didn’t have much growing up. To put food on the table, his mother worked as a housemaid and did babysitting on the side. But his mom had an incredible work ethic and was a bit of an entrepreneur as well. With the money she earned from babysitting, she bought the house across the street from where they were living. Three years later, his mom was able to sell that house and make a $20,000 profit. He remembered his mom telling him that she made $20,000 in her sleep. This sparked his interest in real estate investing.
In his third year of being a real estate broker, he met a guy who taught him that up to 90% of our success in anything is our mindset and psychology. This thought led him to 10x his income that year. In 2006, his net worth shot up to $17 million - while he slept.
But all that changed when the market crashed in 2008 when he lost a staggering $50 million. His net worth dropped by more than 70% and he felt he had to throw in the towel. This painful yet valuable lesson reminded him that the key to recovering from his losses was to work on his mindset.
Today, Rod Khleif is an accomplished entrepreneur, real estate investor, author, mentor, and community philanthropist who is passionate about business, life, success, and giving back. He is also the host of the top-ranked iTunes real estate podcast: The Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing where he advocates creating lifetime cash flow through multifamily properties.
Let’s hear from Rod as he shares his life’s journey and why real happiness cannot be achieved by having the life you always dreamed of but by giving back to those who truly need it.
Top Takeaways:
06:04 How Rod lost $50 million
06:55 What makes cash flow so important?
10:18 The importance of failing your way to success
13:30 How being accountable for yourself helps you to move forward
15:32 Why you need to build cash flow other than real estate sales
16:56 Rod’s thoughts on Airbnb
22:24 The difference in investing in multi-family properties vs. single-family homes and other asset classes
24:50 How Tony Robbins influenced Rod
26:12 A step by step guide to Rod’s goal-setting strategy
32:07 The core emotion you need to get what you want in life
38:56 Why happiness comes from progress and growth
39:01 The biggest lesson Rod wants to share with the audience
To know more about Rod Khleif:
Visit his website: https://rodkhleif.com/
Listen to his podcast: Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing Rod Khleif
Join his Facebook Group: multifamilycommunity.com
You can also join his Multifamily Bootcamp which is happening from Dec 3rd to 5th, 2021. To get a special discount, text multifamily to 72345 with the code: rodfriend
Podcast Transcript:
Brian Charlesworth 0:34
Alright, hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Grit podcast. I'm Brian Charlesworth, I'm the host of the show, and also the founder and CEO of Sisu, the real estate software company that is really streamlining and automating the entire real estate business. And today I have a special guest. I'm excited about this. We have done a lot on mindset. We're going to talk about mindset today. We have not done a lot on real estate investing in a long time. And we're going to hit on that as well. But I have a special guest, Rod Cleef. With me is that the correct pronunciation?
Rod Khleif 1:07
Yep. Thanks for yes.
Brian Charlesworth 1:09
Good. So Rod, as you know, he's made and lost 50 million. I'll start with that. We're gonna hear a story here in a minute. Congratulations on that one. That's great. I respect anyone that does that. And I know he's building a backup as well right now. So having a lot of fun. So rods, business owner, real estate investor, philanthropist, he's an author. And he's a podcaster. That's been going about five years and has a huge number of downloads. So many of you will probably want to jump in and get into that podcast as well if you're not familiar with it. So we'll hit on all of those things today. But rod, why don't we start by just letting you kind of give us your background and how you got to where you are today?
Rod Khleif 1:52
Sure. No, no, I appreciate that. So I'm going to go back away. Because I lend I think it will, in some framework to what we're going to talk about. So I immigrated to this country when I was six years old with my brother Albert, my mother's vancian. I was born in the Netherlands, Holland, you know, think wouldn't choose and windmills and we ended up in Denver, Colorado, I will tell you when we first got there, we really struggled for years. I remember, you know, eating expired food because that's where my mom bought food at expired, expired food stores. We got you know, had powdered milk with our cereal in the morning, instead of real milk because it was cheaper. And I work clothes from the goodwill and the Salvation Army all the way through junior high school till I lied about my age at Burger King and got a job flipping burgers so that I can buy my own clothes and buy a car ultimately. And you know, I'm sure you've got listeners that may have had it harder than we did. But I'm going to tell you, I knew I wanted more. And so luckily, my mom had an incredible work ethic, and she babysat kids so we'd have enough money to eat. And with our babysitting money, she was a bit of an entrepreneur, she actually invested in the stock market. She invested in IPOs with no formal education. She also invested in real estate. And with her babysitting money when I was 14, the first house she bought was right across the street from us for $30,000. When I was 14, or sorry, 17. She told me that, I don't know if I said that. Right? When I was 14, she bought that house for $30,000. When I was 17. She told me she'd made $20,000 in her sleep. And I'm like what? You made 20,000 You didn't do anything. And so I said screw College, I'm getting into real estate. So I went out and got my real estate broker's license, right? When I turned 18. And I was a broker, I wasn't just an agent, you could actually do that back then with education. They got smart. Now you need some education, some experience before you become a broker. But I was a broker, right? When I turned 18, I was gonna sell real estate. And so, you know, my first year in real estate, or 1978, I made about I don't know, maybe eight to 10 grand my second year about 10 to 12 grand, but my third year made over $100,000, which back in 1980 was pretty decent change. And so what happened between year two and year three that caused me to Tenex my income. Well, what happened was I met a guy actually dated his daughter that taught me about the importance of mindset and psychology and how truly 80 to 90% of your success in anything is just that your mindset and psychology. Fast forward to today. You know, I've owned over 2000 houses that I've rented long term in three states, I've owned 1000s of apartment units. In 2006 my net worth went up $17 million while I slept. And you're thinking Wow, that's impressive. And so did I I thought I was a frickin real estate God and you know, my head got so big I could barely fit it through a door. And you know when that happens, God or the universe or whatever you believe will give you a nice little smack Well, that was 2008. Like you said, I lost $50 million in 2008. And you told me you did as well, which is freaking awesome because I've never met anybody that has so this is uh, you know, I always tell people if you know somebody lost that much let me know so I feel better about myself. So now I feel better. I'm just kidding,
Good. But whatever I can do to help you with that.
Appreciate that every day. Yeah. So anyway, so you know I lost it all. And I thought I was set for life. And so one of the things that I'm known for, you know, like I said, you mentioned my podcasts called lifetime cash flow through real estate investing. And I've, yeah, I've had 11 and a half million downloads, I'm really proud of it. And one of the things I'm known for is mindset and psychology and you know, the mindset, it took that 50 million to lose in the first place. And then maybe as important and more important, how to recover from that to the success that I'm blessed to have today. And it was all mindset and psychology. So, you know, I'd love to drill down on that with you, if you like.
Brian Charlesworth 5:32
Yes, absolutely. All right, absolutely. So anyway, excited to dig in. So let's just start with mindset.
Rod Khleif 5:39
What I get asked a lot is, you know, how did you recover? So if you want, I'll just roll with that question. Because it's a, it's a, you know, it was people killed themselves back in the Great Depression, and it was the last contraction, over losing that much or less, you know,
Brian Charlesworth 5:54
I mean, let's talk about it. So the market crashes, and '08, and you have I think you had 2000 bucks.
Rod Khleif 6:04
Back then I had 800 houses, and I had several apartment complexes. And, and so why, why I crashed. Let me explain that for a minute. Because that's important. People always ask because let me tell you some, I was only at a 30% loan to value people thought I was over-leveraged, I only owe 30 cents on the dollar. And I still crashed and burned. And here's why is it's never about value. It's about cash flow. In fact, I wrote the best selling book called How To Create lifetime cash flows and multifamily properties, but the subtitle is the new rules of real estate investing, ie the new rules being focused on cash flow, don't tell me what you what it sold for 10 years ago, and you can buy it now? Because that's irrelevant. Well, does the cash flow and this a relevant conversation? Because I think we're heading into a contraction at some point here. You know, I think this current administration is hell-bent on making it happen, what it feels like to me, but be that as it may, we won't go down that rabbit hole, but the point is, you know, cash flow is what's most important. And so back then, I had those 800 houses and and and so let me explain what happened. They were all in Florida. So so there's a couple of key pieces here. One, Florida has no state income tax. So property taxes are higher, okay, which impacts cash flow, right. And, and I had a property's up and down the Gulf Coast of Florida. So I properties in wind and flood zones, higher insurance, which impacts cash flow. But what killed me was if I sent a maintenance guy to one of my apartment complexes, everything's the same. The plumbing parts are the same, the electrical parts, the locks, the HVAC, the appliances, windows, everything. And so we could stockpile some parts, and they're in and out in an hour. Okay, well, if I had to send someone to one of my 800 houses, first of all, they got to get there, that could be an hour and a half round trip. Or even one way in some cases, I had houses as far as two hours away, and they've got to get there, see what's wrong, every house is different, right? Then they got to go find a Home Depot or Lowe's, where we have an account. And that could be an hour round trip. And I don't know about you, Brian. But when rods happiest tries to fix something, usually I go to Home Depot more than once because I forget something or do something wrong. And so but and then that happens with maintenance guys, as well. And so you know, what took an hour one of my apartment complexes took all day at one of my 800 houses. Now these were C Class houses. And that's an important piece here, you know, there's a, b, c, and d houses these The hood is, you know, primo brand new. But, but these were C Class houses. So you know, they're older, so they have more maintenance, but also that demographic is harder on properties. So you're going to have a lot more maintenance. And so that really killed my cash flow. But then the the coup de gras as it were, is, you know, back then I wasn't paying attention to demographics. You know, if, if a person had good credit if they had good credit, they had, you know, a good job or whatever. I didn't pay attention to demographics and so what I discovered was I had a lot of jobbers, contractors, plumbers, electricians, drywallers painters, roofers, and their work fell off a cliff in Oh, eight, nine. And so they didn't have work and it was like the perfect storm. And, and you know, what's interesting, Brian is my portfolio by the end of 2009. In early 2010, actually went upside down, it was worth dropped 70 More than 70% So anyway, I, I threw in the towel, and it was very painful. Like I said,
Brian Charlesworth 9:19
What does that mean? What does that mean you threw in the towel like?
Rod Khleif 9:22
Well, it means it means I gave, They all went into foreclosure. I had hundreds of jobs. I didn't give up in life. I gave up on that portfolio. And I didn't really didn't give up actually, I just I actually transformed I did quite a few things. I actually built a litigation support company to help people fight foreclosures. I built law firms in five states and and and we'd stop foreclosure through litigation and we had a back office that helped them, loan model, we save 1000s of houses. And that was a business I started that, you know, I sold a couple of years ago and we literally helped 1000s of families save their homes. I hated the business. So because it's just negative people aren't happy when they're losing their houses and litigations. No fun. And just all that, but,
Brian Charlesworth 10:01
But when you're going through it and you feel the pain, you want to solve the problem. And I think, like, that's how so many businesses are built, right? You go through a struggle, you feel the pain. And then you say, I'm going to solve this. And so anyway, yeah, I think it's great that you go to
Rod Khleif 10:17
I go to seminars, I call them seminars, right? I mean, they're only a failure if you don't get back up and you don't get the lesson. And, you know, I've actually built 27 businesses and several been worth 10s of millions of dollars. Most had been spectacular flaming seminars, you know, we failed our way to success, right? You know, I got to meet the billionaire owner of Spanx, Sara Blakely, a beautiful human being, you know, the women's undergarments. And she started with $5,000. And now I think she just sold it actually for a billion. I think I thought
Brian Charlesworth 10:45
Several billion she really, really she was worth a billion over a year ago. Yeah. Okay. Well, there you go. So blacks, Blackstone just bought it. No, I heard
Rod Khleif 10:53
Okay, go. So that's true. So you just verified it. I wasn't sure. But that's yeah. Wow, good for her. She's a beautiful human being. But I met her at a mastermind. And her husband's really cool, too, by the way, but But I met her at a mastermind. And she told me that her dad used to tell her ask her brother, you know, on a regular basis, what have you failed at? And I thought what a fantastic question to ask your kids and he would be, you know, irritated with him if then tried something and failed. And yeah, what a great way to pre-frame to not fear failure, because we fit as you know, you as well as probably the best person I've ever met, like me, you know, we fail our way to success. Right. And yeah, and so, anyway, but yeah,
Brian Charlesworth 11:30
So I want to share a quick story with you. So Sara Blakely, his husband, does this thing called, I think it's called 2929 runs up the mountain. Yeah. So anyway, my wife signed me and her to go do that next summer. Wow. It's actually at the Snowbasin. One here in Utah. We actually wanted to go to Canada, but who knows with COVID we will be able to get into Canada. Right. So. So anyway, we signed up to do it here. Next year. So anyway, oh, very excited for that.
Rod Khleif 12:00
He's a treat. I got to see him speak. And, you know, he built that it's not, I think, some to do with planes. And, and, you know, he's got the long hair just, they're cool people. But anyway, I digress. But anyway, so how did I recover? So I'll tell you how I recovered. I don't know how you recover by saying how I recovered. Okay, so I re-associated with what I wanted, and why I wanted it. So like, like, you know, I do live events now.
Brian Charlesworth 12:23
And before you talk about that, can you talk about the pain a little bit?
Rod Khleif 12:27
Yeah, we just have to suffer a little more. Okay. No,
Brian Charlesworth 12:29
I mean, really, because everyone goes through that. It's not like you were just like back on your feet? No, in a day. I mean, I don't know how long it took you to get over that.
Rod Khleif 12:38
Well, I hid under a rock for a few months. But here's here's one of the other pieces of why I was able to recover quickly, is I was in an incredible peer group. So at the time, I was in Tony Robbins Platinum Partnership. And you know, there were guys there that were killing it through all this crash and they're like, Oh, stop whining and get up off your ass. Go make something happen and, and, you know, so So that's one key piece here, guys, those of you listening peer group is incredible. You show me your three best friends, I'll show you who you are not just your financial, your relationship, your health, everything because you are the people you hang out with, as you know, Brian, so so. So I was around that group, which really helped a lot. But no, don't get me wrong. I mean, I was pissing and moaning because I lost everything. And I was truly thought I was set for life. I really believe that I thought, you know, 80 million baby boomers getting old getting cold, Florida was recession-proof what was freaking ground zero for the contraction. And so, but
Brian Charlesworth 13:31
The one thing I'd like to add to that is, as long as you blame it on somebody else, it's always going to stay with you. But the minute you take the accountability for what happens because we are accountable for everything that happens in our lives, 100 minutes was made you take that now you can move forward,
Rod Khleif 13:50
That's it. 100% responsibility, it's not your dog, your cat, your spouse, it's you, the good and the bad, you just got to own it. And that's very freeing, and, but a lot of people don't, a lot of people, you know, will also let it become their story or their identity, you know, and it's negative, and then it disempowers them and they can't move forward. So you got to pay attention to that too. Don't and don't marry the vehicle you're using. Okay? That you like for example, you may have a setback and a failure but you're not a failure. Okay, it's, it's, you know, it's that endeavor, again, I've built 27 businesses and you know, and most of them have made it but we become stronger and we grow from those experiences. So yeah, so you know, if you come to one of my boot camps, for example, one of the first things we do is we do a goal-setting workshop on steroids, Okay, and why well for me that's how I recovered was re-associating with what I wanted why I wanted it but then here's the bottom line is how the hell are you going to get anything if you don't know what it is? Right? You need to know what it is you want with clarity and why you want it. And so, you know, yeah, and I'm super excited because I finally I don't know when this will go live but I've got a boot came coming in December, December 3, and I'm finally able to go live again. Because I've been, I've been doing a live stream now for, you know, ever since COVID Hit I've had 1000s of people attend, but it's brutal because you know, it's me for days and I've got my poker-faced videographer looking at me, I don't have any of that feedback in that love and you know, all that from a live event. So I'm super excited, I've got one coming, I'll give your listeners an awesome, you know, that let me mention something here. You know, I know you have a lot of realtors and brokers and broker team leaders and things like that on your show. And, guys, I hope to god you're building some cash flow from something other than your real estate sales, okay. And, you know, if you don't go to work or you get sick, or you get hit by a car, whatever the income stops, but if you bought some cash flowing assets, then that doesn't happen. And you're in the perfect position to kick butt in what I do, which is like multifamily real estate or real estate, in general, buying it and, and renting it out, and I would push you to do multifamily instead of single families. The reason I started my podcast was to get that message out there. Because it was the houses that pulled me down my multifamily. If I hadn't cross-collateralized those apartment complexes with packages or houses to save a few basis points on interest, I would still have those apartment complexes. So you know, they're there. They're much more recession-resistant, and you know, multifamily in the when it crashed, pulled back, I don't know, 10 11% nationwide. But what was fascinating is within three years, the rents exceeded pre-crash levels. That's how fast it bounced back. And even with this COVID thing, except for the blue states was a blip, you know, so, you know, multifamily is an awesome, awesome vehicle for cash flow. And for you guys that are in the real estate business, for God's sake. I mean, you know, there's nothing better for you because you're in the perfect position to find the best deals. So again,
Brian Charlesworth 16:49
While you're talking about that, I have a quick question for you. So multifamily is what you push, that's your message, I'd love to get your thoughts on Airbnb, like, I know a lot of people now that are making a lot more money with Airbnb and those types of rentals versus somebody who's in there, you know, for a year or two, right?
Rod Khleif 17:09
Yeah, no, I mean, listen, I'm not an expert in Airbnb, it's an incredible business model, we are going to try it at a couple of our complexes. And, you know, and what's interesting is you would think that you would make the real money in the resort areas, but believe it or not, I think they do better, like around big employment hubs and where people are going to get work and things of that nature. You know, I don't know, I know, there are some legislators there's a lot of areas have legislation that’s pushed by the hotel industry to try to thwart Airbnb. And I know there are areas that have basically made it impossible. So I, you know, I'd keep an eye on the legislation. As far as Airbnb, I met a guy that's killing it with Airbnb, and he was brilliant. I met him at another mastermind that I belong to, and he told me that he always has a separate exit strategy like he wants to, he wants to know, he can break even if he has to long term hold, he wants to know he can sell, you know, if he has to sell. And so I think if you do it that way, and you've protected your back end and have it add multiple exit strategies, I think it's it's a no brainer. Okay. So so Yeah, nothing negative to say other than just be careful because I do know, the hotel industry is got an incredible lobby, and they pushed, you know because obviously, it's hurting their revenue. So yes. But, but anyway, so, yeah, my boot camps December 3, fourth, and fifth, it's every aspect of multifamily real estate, it's not a sales pitch, I talk about my coaching for about 30 minutes, maybe on one day, but the other three days, all three days is content. I've had 1000s of people attend my virtual and live events, only complaint aggregate is the rooms too cold or the food sucked or something like that. It's never about the content. But it's you know, I teach you how to find the deals, how to evaluate them, how to pick an area how to build a team, because multifamily real is a team sport, I teach you how to, you know, finance them, how to raise the money for them, and so much money looking for deals right now how to syndicate how to joint venture, how-to, you know, property manage, but I'm known for mindset, I'm going to tell you, I'm really proud of what I'm going to tell you next, my warrior coaching students, the ones that do invest in coaching. I know the Bootcamp attendees have more than this, but my just my coaching students alone, I've been teaching a little over three and a half years, between three and a half and four years, they own 46 to 47,000 units, okay? And that's how long I've been teaching. I'm really proud of that. But you know, and the reason is, is that I'm such a big proponent on mindset and you come to my event, you will laugh, you will cry, you will be super motivated, you'll, you'll create an identity statement, we'll go through goals. And I could describe that goal-setting process in about five or 10 minutes if you'd like. It's pretty powerful, even if you can't come, but let me just tell you the deal. If you guys want to come I'll discount it to $197 which is kind of a dud by itself, but also throw in some really cool stuff. I just created a courage and confidence course which I'm super proud of. And it's it's eight modules. Just to build your confidence to take action, I've also got my finding deals course which is 10 modules that I'm including as well. So and I'm going to include my, you know, I've got a best selling book number one bestseller how to create lifetime cash flow to multifamily properties, like I said, and I'll give you the PDF of that and the audio version of that. So, you know, you get the course the three days in Orlando, which is a cool place to go anyway. But listen, if you come, let me tell you how to get that price because it's a special deal, you text, multifamily 272345 and then use the code rod friend, and then you'll get the 197 price that's almost half price off the what's posted there now and it's going to go up from there too, but 197 and you'll get those courses and stuff. And if you don't if you come to me Sunday afternoon, and you tell me you don't freakin’ love it. I don't mean like it. I mean, love it. I'll give you your money back. No questions asked. I've never had it happen. But hey, there's always the first time. But anyway, so again, text multifamily 72345, or you can go to multifamily Bootcamp calm. But if you just remember the code rod friend, anyway, thank you for letting me plug that because I'm really proud of it, you know?
Brian Charlesworth 21:09
Yeah. And the only reason I let you plug it is that it's like, this is something that everybody in real estate, as you might, you should be doing
Rod Khleif 21:19
Right every January 1 cycle, but you go back to work. And if something happens, God forbid, we even honestly, honestly, there's a market correction. You know, I gotta tell you, I feel like we're on the edge of something. I mean, I think this administration is hell bent on making it happen. But don't we won't go down that rabbit hole. But, you know, I mean, I think that we could in real estate goes through cycles. And we've been in summer for a long time. I really think we're in fall right now and what comes after fall, right. So, you know, and if that happens, you know, if you haven't got a short sale business or some other business to capitalize on a contraction, you're going to be in trouble. And so but here's the other thing. inflation's come into, it's already started. But here's the caveat to that. Yes, that hurts a lot of people, but who does it help? Landlords, okay, because you've got fixed debt and your rents are going to go up, I'm just telling you so. So there's, there's a plus there, you know, I don't think there's a better hedge for inflation than cash flowing real estate. And I know many of you already have some houses or whatever. But, you know, if you want to check out multifamily, I hope you'll check it out. I know you'll be glad you did. I promise you, you'll be glad you did. So I appreciate you
Brian Charlesworth 22:25
Just just a quick tip here Ron, why multifamily versus
Rod Khleif 22:29
Single family
Brian Charlesworth 22:30
And I think it's pretty easy, but family versus single family. Yeah,
Rod Khleif 22:35
I've debated that on podcast before. It's a lot of fun. And, you know, first of all scale. It's as hard to buy a house as it is to buy a 10 unit. Okay, it's the same amount of work so scale that I just talked to you about the logistics of it. Okay, you know, maintenance is so much easier if you've got the units all close together like that. So and the management is so much easier, you can hire competent third-party management, single family management, most of the companies are like a broker that does it on the side, it's usually pretty crappy. And it's harder to cash flow, it's much harder to cash flow single-family than it is multifamily and if you've got a single-family and it's vacant, you're 100% vacant, you got a 10 unit and you've got two or three units empty you can very often still survive quite easily so So you know there's just a lot of reasons why multifamily is better now let's talk about multifamily versus other asset classes retail office industrial you know self-storage. I'm gonna say this I'll just tell you this like through COVID None of those other asset classes got help but renter Sure did. I've got it we got a few $100,000 in rental assistance payments from tenants that got it from the government. So, you know, just keep that in mind. And I think it's it's without question, the most resilient asset class in the real estate industry, which is why I love it. And you know, but honestly, at this point, I love teaching more than anything else. I mean, you can see on the wall behind me I've got literally hundreds of thank you cards, you can't even the whole walls covered back here and again, I've only been I've been teaching in less than four years and so I'm addicted to it because I you know, and this is not ego please know what I'm going to say next is not ego, but I get love probably at least 10 times a day in the form of a DM or a gift or a card or something from people who've you know, been taking advantage of all the free material I put out there they've taken action come to my boot camps, whatever, listen to my podcast and made some changes, so.
Brian Charlesworth 24:33
Here's the thing I've seen in life and what year was that? That you were a Tony Robbins Platinum Partner?
Rod Khleif 24:39
That was actually 2000. So a long time ago. No, um, no, no, no, sorry
Brian Charlesworth 24:44
No, no, it's 2008. Right.
Platinum was 2008. Yes. Correct. As an
Rod Khleif 24:48
'07 & "08 yeah.
Brian Charlesworth 24:50
So here's something I've noticed, like I've been through every Tony Robbins event My wife has been through every Tony Robbins event. People who go through that there's something about it, but did definitely has an impact on your mindset. It definitely has an impact on you wanting to contribute, right definitely has an impact on you wanting to grow constantly. So growth and contribution being the two things that make us happiest in life. So that's right. You know, that's why you're starting. That's why you started this right?
Rod Khleif 25:21
Oh, no, there's no question. There's no question. I mean, you evolve. I mean, I just, you know, I followed him around the planet for 20 years I've been to two or three events a year for 20 years. And I was on his team for eight years. Okay. So I mean, yeah, I'm a huge Tony. And, guys, if you have an opportunity to see him, just do it. Trust me. You'll be glad you did you agree, Brian?
Brian Charlesworth 25:40
Absolutely.
Rod Khleif 25:41
Yeah. So yeah, while he's still talking, get out there and see him for sure. But, ya know, he's impacted every area of my life. And I give him kudos for almost every opportunity. I can. But yeah, so my goal-setting strategy is modeled around what he taught in his in his courses and stuff. Because, you know, again,
Brian Charlesworth 26:01
Can you tell us a little bit more? I mean, is that something we can dive into a little bit?
Rod Khleif 26:04
Yeah let me let me dissect that real quick for you. Because if you can't come to the Bootcamp, then this will really help. So if you take some notes, take some notes. So what you want to do is you want to pick an hour when you're going to be in uninterrupted and make sure you're well-hydrated while I grab a bottle of water here. And make sure you're well hydrated. Don't do it after a meal when you're sluggish from a meal. And sit down and write down everything you could possibly want in life. Okay, so not just the couple of things that you're going to do for New Year's resolution, that's forgotten by February, I'm talking about your whole life, write down all the stuff, the cars, the jet skis, the boats, the planes, the whatever it is everything, all the stuff, write down how much cash flow you want from your investments and say three years, and again in 10 years, right, so write down how much cash you want in the bank. And, you know, in case your stuff, hit the fan fund in three years, and again, in 10 years, write down and take the lid off your brain. Imagine if you write it down, you're going to get it which is not outside the realm of reality. You want a private island, a jet, a yacht, write it down, because what that does is it starts the process, it triggers something in your brain called your reticular activating system, right. And what that is, is this subconscious filter, you're not conscious of it, but it points you in the direction your brain thinks you're interested in that you have an interest in, like greatest examples, when you first buy a car, you never really noticed them. You buy the car, they're everywhere. Were they there before, of course, they were right. So that's your reticular activating system. So take the lid off your brain, write down everything you could ever possibly want in life. If you're analytical, don't stop and analyze it just keep writing, you can always scratch it out later. But don't let the pen Leave, leave the paper. Once. You can't think of another thing I want you to also write down everything you want to do in this lifetime. Write a book. You know, climb every mountain over 14,000 feet, the places you want to visit, I've got a travel vision board, for example. You know, I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. I did that a couple of years ago. I'll never freakin do it again. But it's off the bucket list, right? So whatever it is, you want to do write that down as well. Then, you know also write down everything you want to learn in this lifetime. You want to learn a foreign language you want to learn a skill, right? If it's multifamily, for God's sakes, come see me but whatever it is, write that down. Then lastly, write down who you want to help. We'll do more for others than we'll ever do for ourselves. And this guy's This is the fuel to get you to get up early. Stay up late work a Saturday to grind a few years like most people won't, so you can live the rest of your life like most people can't. Okay, so so take your time with this. It's so freakin important. So write down who you want to help. Like, for example, I bought my parents a house here on a canal when my dad was alive, bought him a car took them on cruises, who do you want to help write that down. Then once you can't think of another thing, I want you to put a time limit on each goal put how many years you think it's going to take to achieve it. So put a one, a three, a five, even a 10 or a 20. Recognizing that as human beings, we will overestimate what we can do in a year and massively underestimate what we can do in 510 20 years. I'll give you an example this when I was 18. I lived in Denver, of course, but I knew I wanted to live on the beach and there's no beach in Denver. So you know, I would visualize the palm trees and the surf in the sand. And, you know, 20 years later I built this $8 million 10,000 square foot mansion on the beach. I own the beach on one side and my boats on the backside. It was a Gulf to Bay thing. And it was unthinkable when I say
Brian Charlesworth 29:24
Where was it?
Rod Khleif 29:25
In Sarasota here. Yeah. Yeah. And so but again, that was unthinkable when I was 18. And but I visualized I made it happen. So there's nothing you can't do be or have in this country. That's the beautiful thing about living in this amazing country we live in. So once you've put a time limit on each goal, pick your number one goal I mean that goal when you get it you're like oh my god, this is amazing that you know you've arrived when you achieve that goal. Write that on a separate sheet of paper. Then take your top three one-year goals, put those on a separate sheet of paper, leave some room in between them. Now at this point, you're ahead and 99.9% people on the planet that do a New Year's resolution. Like I said, that's forgotten within a month or two. But there are a couple more quick steps. I now I want you to goals are important, the goals will push you, they'll pull you, they'll drive you, but it's, it's why those goals are a must. That's the real fuel. So you need to write down under each goal, why it's an absolute freakin must for you to achieve it. So and use emotionally charged words, words are incredibly powerful, you know, words like amazing and beautiful and incredible because words will juice you. So you might say so I can show my kids what amazing success looks like. So I can show my wife, what it means to live a life of incredible abundance. So we can have unlimited freedom to do whatever we want, whenever we want, wherever we want bring whoever, whatever it is, whatever is gonna juice, you write that down, okay? This is really important. And those of you that are analytical, you can't do this in your head, you're in your head, you're dead, you got to write it down. Okay? Now, once you've got some positive reasons why you must achieve those goals. Put some pain in there if you don't, so I don't feel like a failure. So I don't fail. My kids sort of fail my wife or husband. So I don't live a life of regret. You know, Brian, there was this nurse in Australia. She was a hospice nurse. And she so she took care of patients when they were about to die. And she, she asked him a question. And the question was, Do you have any regrets? And she wrote a book about it. Her name is Bronnie Ware, and it's called the Five Regrets of Dying. You know what the number one regret was, was not living the life I could have lived living someone else's life not doing what I know I'm capable of. I can't think of anything worse than that. Right? Yeah. And so
Brian Charlesworth 31:39
That's why you and I have felt so much.
Rod Khleif 31:41
That's right. You know, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Right? So you've got your positive negative reasons why the last thing you must do is you must get pictures of your goals or make declarations. Let me give you some examples of this. So a great public example is Jim Carey. Okay, Jim Carrey when he was flat broke, wrote himself a check for $10 million. You know, the actor the comedian is so I'm talking about here. And for those of you that are millennials, a check is something we used to use to pay for things. Now it's of course, then whatever, Zillow or whatever, anyway, so he wrote himself a check and he'd go up by the Hollywood sign flat broke, and he'd look at it and visualize cashing it. And that's how much money you made for dumb and Dumber. I'll give you more.
Brian Charlesworth 32:21
So do you know that I heard that story? Maybe 10 years ago? Yeah. Ever since then. I carry a check in my wallet for $2 billion.
Rod Khleif 32:31
No shit. I got a hold on. I've got a sign on my wall here. I don't know if you can see it says 1 million per month. Can you see that on my window there? This still works, guys. Okay, I'm just telling you. I know some of your analytical ones are. Come on, get on with the real estate stuff. This is more important than the real estate stuff. Trust me on this. Okay.
Brian Charlesworth 32:48
You say it's 80 to 90% mindset. But I personally, I believe it's 100% mindset. Because without the mindset, you're not going to do it.
Rod Khleif 32:56
That's right. I've got a sign above my bed that used to say 100,000 a month and my wife hated it. Now, of course, it says a million a month and she hates that one too. But because it works, okay. But anyway, so get pictures. Demi Lovato is another great example. So 11 years ago when she was unknown, posted on social media. One day, I'm going to sing the national anthem in the Super Bowl one day. Yeah, go not this last one. The one before he was saying the national anthem. I'll give you some personal examples for me. And please know I'm not bragging with these examples. These I'm just hoping to inspire you. Okay. This stuff doesn't even interest me anymore, but I'm hoping to inspire you. So when I got my broker's license, I figured I had to have a four-door car to show houses. Right. And so I bought this bone ugly gray Ford Granada piece of crap bench seat in the front. But then I the guy I told you about that first taught me about mindset. Tony was after that was I dated his daughter and he had to Corvettes and he let me drive one. And I'm like, Oh, good. God, this is frickin amazing. So I got a picture out of a magazine this before the internet of a Corvette. I put it on the visor of this bone ugly Granada within a year or two at a beautiful Corvette in. Now. This is back when the TV show Magnum PI was out. Okay, Detective, and who's the actor Tom Selleck. And he drove Yeah. And he drove this Ferrari 308. It was the first time I'd seen an exotic and I'm like, Oh, my God, I got a picture of that actual car out of a magazine put on the visor of my Corvette, within a year to get a Maserati Look, just like the last example, I'm the guy that always wanted a Lamborghini. I mean, I had pictures that, you know, Lamborghinis growing up. And what's funny is my son collected models of exotic cars he had like 30 or 40 when he was nine years old and McLaren's in the Porsches and Ferraris he had a model of the exact same color and style Lamborghini they ended up getting, like, let me show you something. So this is my planner. Okay, it's not today. Friday, the 29th in the back of this thing are pictures that have been in here for 20 years. Okay. So if you can't see this, if you're on iTunes, I'm showing pictures that they're in plastic. They've literally been in here for 20 Two years used to be a daytimer luckily the holes lined up but, but it's Franklin Covey now and the first pictures are my gratitude pictures. Why? Because everything you want in life comes from gratitude. This is the core emotion to get what you want in life. Okay, so these are pictures Mike my kids are 30 and 26 is a picture of when they were babies and kids right? Then I've got pictures of the things that I wanted. This top picture looks just like the house on the beach that I built. I had 10-foot high glass like that, but together travertine floors like that, and I lost that house and all the craziness okay, but now I live in a compound and you can see the bottom pictures there how they had to see the Whitestone walls and those two pictures. This is a picture of my backyard see the stone wall behind me is African crazy. Now what's funny is I lost that house and all the craziness now I have his compound. I've got six buildings. I've got a big main house two-bedroom guesthouse on the water. I just saw my daughter on the camera she's staying there right now. I've got a media building with a video studio book because I had to go virtual I bet exercise facility theater room. I mean it's really nice but because God's got a sense of humor. My old house that I lost is right across the bay it's right out my backyard so hilarious. But anyway and then I've got, you know pictures in here of stupid stuff that I thought was important. You know, I've got a few $100,000 with the watches and the Lamborghini before I ever got it you know, and again none of this stuff may interest you guys but replace it with what does okay the Rolls Royce, the Bentley all the stuff that I got because I had pictures. So get pictures, put them around you put them on your screensaver, do vision boards. I've got multiple vision boards. Why? Because it freakin’ works.
Brian Charlesworth 36:36
Yeah, so thank you. Yeah, like, I 100% I wanted you to dig into that because I think that's the most important thing anybody can do. Here we are. October getting ready to end the year strong, I hope or you may just be getting ready to take two months off for the holidays.
Rod Khleif 36:53
No, no work for me.
Brian Charlesworth 36:55
I mean that there are two different two different people there. Which one of those are you going to be right? So start with a gratitude.
Rod Khleif 37:04
Can I share one thing before I forget it's really important. It's really important okay as it relates to goals. So I told you about that house I built on the beach right in and, and I mean, this place was spectacular. 12-foot wide waterfall from the second-floor balcony to the pool giant spiral staircase up to the middle house with carved iron around it and, you know, elevator wine cellar. I mean, just spectacular. And in fact, the second floor I built aquariums around the staircase cost me almost 200 grand so this gives you an idea the house. So I worked for this thing for 20 freakin years, okay. Two months after I moved in 20 years, two months, two months after I moved in, I'm floating in the pool at night. And I'm it's changing colors. It's got fiber optic lighting, and I'm looking up at this testament to my ego, which is really what it was I built this house to prove the world I was good enough. And, you know, when I got thrown in school at six years old, I got beat up in school a lot. I found out what bullies were I got, you know, and things happen that every kid has happened. I got humiliated on a playground by some girl I had a crush on. And I used to think that I wasn't good enough. And so, you know, this was how I was showing the world. I was good enough. I built this frickin house. And I'm looking up at this thing and I got depressed. And I don't mean just a little depressed. I mean, I was really depressed. I'm like, What the hell, I've just achieved success like times 1000 I've got the Maserati in the garage at the time. Benz's and boats and jet skis and all the crap but I was depressed beautiful family in the house beautiful, incredible home and I was depressed and so there were several things going on. This is really important I want to share before we cut off here, one was if you're going to achieve a big goal for god sakes have other goals lined up behind it because like the Good Book says, without a vision, the people perish and you've got to have a vision for the future right? Secondly, it's never about the goals you know, they say the happiest days of boat owners life the day they buy it the day they sell it's never but you need the goals to push you and propel you but it's about progress and growth happiness comes from progress and growth. It's like what the hell am I going to do now to grow and so that was the second thing but the big thing that I want to share is you know I had been totally focused on me rod rod rod show the world I matter show the world I'm good enough right? And so I went out you know, I'm just like, Man, I don't want to sit on a couch and work through this. So I went out and bought some books. I got Dale Carnegie Andrew, you know, I got Napoleon Hill and I got a Tony book right this is when I first introduced to Tony I got his Unleash the Power Within and I got about halfway through that and finished the book. I'm like, Man, I liked it. So I went saw him life. And I saw that he fed families for the holidays, you know, his basket brigade. I'm like, What a concept do something for someone else. And yeah, I'm embarrassed to say I had to be 40 to get that memo. But I called my brother because I was going to see him for Thanksgiving. And I said we're going to feed five families so he called his church that who really needs help. Third family changed my life. You know, we got toys for the kids. We got this a single mom with five kids. She lived in a one bedroom one even a one-bedroom was a crappy one-bedroom. She had to walk through the bedroom to get to the kitchen, but she was in there with five kids. She comes out she sees the frozen turkey. She says the food She sees the toys she starts crying, or kids come out the older ones start crying I start crying. I'm freaking hooked. And please know what I'm gonna share with you now is not ego I there's a message here, so stay with it, okay. I have not fed over 110,000 kids for the holidays, I've done 10s of 1000s of backpacks filled with school supplies to local kids here. It's astounding. We live in the greatest frickin country on earth and they don't have the basic supplies for school 10s of 1000s of teddy bears for officers, local officers to keep in their cars if they encounter a child who has been traumatized. The reason I bring this up this, you know, Brian, you and I know we've been taught to believe you must achieve to be happy, right? We have this mindset that you got to achieve, you won't be happy to achieve to a certain level to be happy. I'm going to tell you if you give back, you are happily achieving. So you might be listening to me saying okay, yeah, I'll do it. When I have the money. I'm going to tell you don't do that find a cause right now be a children like me or the elderly or the environment or animals or whatever the hell it is. And give right now why? Because you'll be happily achieving Tony Robbins calls it the science of achievement versus the article filming achievement is a science, you all are multifamily, I will give you the blueprint in the map and you just do what I say and you will be a success. I just interviewed a guy earlier today, you know, $4 million with assets in one year. You the blueprint is there. That's a science. But fulfillment is an art. You've got to figure out what you're passionate about. And give to that now. And I'm going to tell you when you do that you'll be happily achieving and more, and as importantly, the success is going to come faster because that's the way God of the universe works. Whatever you give you get back tenfold. You agree with me, Brian?
Brian Charlesworth 41:37
Yeah, yes, yes. All right. We all know that to be true. Right? Right. The one thing you said is let's do it today. Right? Don't wait. Right? Because the sooner you do it, the sooner you get growth and contribution, or what makes you those are the two most important gratitude, right, gratitude. Everything starts with gratitude. Yeah, so make sure you do that. Um, the one thing I'd like to just sum up here, Rod, I've loved our time together. I can thank you, but I can spend days and weekends with you. Like was already the one thing I just want to point out like, now's the time you guys, you're listening this podcast today. You've heard a great message here. And like, act on it. It'll change this year. It'll change next year, and it will change your life forever. That's all I say. Yeah,
Rod Khleif 42:25
Let me give some resources here, some free resources. So my website has a ton of free stuff on it books, articles videos, just go to realestatewithRod.com because my name is hard to spell Rod Khlief is the name of the site calm. But if you go to real estate with Rod calm, it'll point there, it'll take you there tons of free stuff. I also have the largest multifamily Facebook group on the planet. If you go to multifamilycommunity.com It's a direct link to that group. But listen, if you can come to the Bootcamp for God's sakes if you can make it you I promise you'll be glad you came. Text multifamily 272345 And remember the code rod friend, you'll get those two courses in my book immediately so you can get started. If you listen to my podcast, that's a great way to get started as well because some of the content I'll be covering, it'll help demystify that.
Brian Charlesworth 43:15
You tell us again, what your podcast is
Rod Khleif 43:17
Called lifetime cash flow through multifamily properties. And you know, I'm usually if you put in real estate as one word, I usually come up in the top three or four, but lifetime cash flows and multifamily properties, you'll really enjoy even if you're not going to do multifamily, and you just want to get juiced, you're on your way to a listing appointment, pull that up and listen to one of my own your power clips. And I'll juice you there's music and AI is five minutes. And I promise you it'd be motivated, juiced after you listen, and I've got hundreds of them on there. It's my eye. It's one thing I just absolutely love doing. So I hope you'll check that out. Brian, I really appreciate you having me on brother. Thank you. Hey, I appreciate you.
Brian Charlesworth 43:54
I feel blessed. My life has been blessed just spending this hour with you. So thank you so much for joining. And everyone. Thanks for joining us on the show really appreciate you guys listening. And this is the kind of people we get when you guys listen to the show. So please give us a rating and we'll see everybody next week. Thank you so much, Rod.
Rod Khleif 44:13
Be well, buddy.
